Altman on defense, Austin, Carter and more

Oregon coach Dana Altman was on the Pac-12 conference call this morning and most of the usual topics and answers came up.

“Defensively, we haven’t been very good, that would be the common denominator,” Altman said when asked of Oregon’s problems during its four-game losing streak. “Offensively, we haven’t been real sharp, but yet for the most part we have scored enough to be successful. We did not play very well offensively and did not shoot the ball well at Oregon State, but for the most part I think we have scored enough points. We have not gotten stops when we need them, rebounds when we need that. That’s been our Achilles heel.”

Altman was asked about 6-11 senior center Waverly Austin, who started the first 11 games this season and 12 total games, but did not play against Oregon State. Altman said after the game that Austin was sick during the week so the Ducks went another direction. Altman said Austin is healthy this week, but was not sure if he would figure into the game plan. He indicated that Ben Carter and Richard Amardi have passed Austin on the depth chart.

“He’s had his opportunities, we’ve given him opportunities and we just haven’t seen the production so his time has diminished,” Altman said of Austin, who is averaging 2.2 points and 1.9 rebounds in 11 minutes per game. “He is an option. Ben has played better, Richard has played a little better. Whoever can rebound and defend will really help us. We’ve given guys a lot of opportunities, we need to see more production.”

Carter scored 11 points against Oregon State after totaling 13 in his first seven games after returning from a nine-game NCAA suspension.

“I thought he played pretty good, he gave us some good offensive moves inside,” Altman said. “Defensively, for the most part, he was pretty solid. He needs to rebound a bit better, but he did play better especially on the offensive end. He was at a disadvantage missing the first nine games, but he worked himself into shape and into a bigger role. He did play well in Corvallis.”

Altman talked about how Oregon’s lack of size has hampered the Ducks.

“We’re not overly big at any position, we do not have a lot of size to cover up some mistakes,” he said. “We have to get more fundamentally sound.”

Oregon (13-4, 1-4) heads north this week to face Washington (11-8, 3-3) on Thursday and Washington State (8-10, 1-5) on Sunday.

“We dug ourselves a hole and we have to play well,” Altman said. “The only thing that changes that around is to hit a few shots, guys play with more energy, get more confidence back, get that thing turned around. It is not easy and it is not just going to happen. We have to make it happen. The challenge is to go on the road again and try to make it happen. It won’t be easy in Seattle and it definitely won’t be easy in Pullman.”

Altman reiterated that he is confident the Ducks can get the season turned back around.

“We’re still a good basketball team, we still have talented players, we just have some deficiencies that I was harping on from the start and we didn’t do a good job addressing them,” he said. “That is as much my fault as it is the team. There is no quick fix, we have to get better. We have to hope to catch a break and win a couple games to get a bounce back in our step and see what we can do. We will go swing away at Washington and we will swing away at Washington State. We are going to have to play better basketball than we are playing.”

Steve Mims covers Oregon football, men's basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. He has been a sportswriter at the paper since 1999 and covered high school sports while also reporting on Oregon football in the Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl as well as men's basketball during their Elite 8 run in 2007 and trip to the Sweet 16 in 2013.